Back in November 2018, Hyundai announced that buyers out of the initial release area of the 10 ZEV states would be able to order the vehicle through a dealership in one of those states.

However, since then, Hyundai has released official range and efficiency specifications as well as pricing for the Kona EV, and demand is overwhelmingly high! It could be that the vehicle is currently the cheapest range-per-mile EV, or the road tests where it is scoring higher than the Chevy Bolt EV.

As a result, Hyundai USA has had to double back on their rollout plan. In an official statement from the company, buyers outside of the ZEV states will now have to wait until Hyundai can support volume sales in all the states.

Given the current demand for Kona Electric in California and other ZEV states, we aren’t able to support volume sales in all non-ZEV states at this time. In the near future, we do plan to offer Kona Electric in non-ZEV states that exhibit higher electric vehicle demand.

Zero Emissions Vehicle – it’s the states that are following California’s CARB lead for low emissions vehicles. Those are the states that give rebates, and where the vehicle manufacturers get credits for each vehicle sold – which is what is forcing them to sell in those states. When a vehicle maker only sells in those states, it would seem that they are just doing the minimum to be compliant with government regulations.

No one knows – if, when, ever? This is something we saw back in 2012 and 2013 when Fiat had the 500e only available in California, and Honda came out with the Fit EV only in California and I think New York and Oregon. These were dubbed ‘Compliance vehicles’ as they just met the minimum requirements by law that allowed Fiat and Honda to keep selling other vehicles in those states.